A feeling of guilt that’s felt (in varying degrees) is a constant companion, a calling inside you. It whispers that you ought to be doing something noble with the failure to achieve some mysterious goal leaving you feeling sad and depressed.
Depending on the volume of this voice inside, you can resort to various activities to sideline and mute its insistence. Get busy with work, family or dive into some project and if all else fails, then indulge in gratuitous behaviour. This generally works for a time, with only the nagging feeling remaining, but remain it does. Ready to pull you into depression if you indulge it.
The latter of these remedies, presents as a potent solution, addressing the self, which is under attack.
We justify with, “if I don’t indulge now, then when?”. A powerful stimulant for more and more hedonistic pursuits.
So how did we get here?
From a nagging voice calling us to some unknown noble cause to debauchery? Is guilt really just a clever guise for our evil inclination.
So, the conclusion you could make is, guilt is evil.
I would like to offer some nuance. Guilt is an unidentifiable desire which, if not satiated can lead to evil.
But what if you could define this noble desire, express it and achieve it, would it still be evil. The answer would have to be, no. In fact, you would have to argue that it’s a polar opposite, guilt is inherently holy.
Just this morning, I had a personal revelation, upon finishing my morning routine of prayers and meditations, I felt a sense of completeness. Like I reached an oasis and found myself at peace.
I reflected for a long time on this. The only word that I could use to describe my feeling was satisfaction, with certainly no iota of that voice. It was entirely muted, in fact, I would go further and say it vanished.
With further reflection, I came up with a formula.
Guilt is an Angel, coaxing you into performing the only thing that you are obligated to do. To be grateful.
• To say thank you for this world and your role in it.
• To say thank you for everything which you receive without needing to ask.
• To say thank you for having the confidence in us by continually giving us chances to be better.
If we are truly grateful, then our reward is an oasis from the clutches of the same Angel who instead of disappearing, changes into a completely different outfit.
I pray that our future prayers will manifest the abundant gratefulness, which is our debt to GOD and fill us with the feeling I experienced this morning.
